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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

ExxonMobil Upgrades Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Refinery

06/14/2021
ExxonMobil will undertake $240 million in capital improvements at its refinery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The will retain 1,300 existing jobs while creating 20.

The project will improve processing capability, increase flexibility for meeting market demand, advance overall site competitiveness and install technology for an expected 10 percent reduction of volatile organic compound emissions. Construction is expected to begin later this year.

The new job opportunities will be available for graduates of the North Baton Rouge Industrial Training Initiative, a collaborative program spearheaded by ExxonMobil in 2012 to provide no-cost, fast-tracked industrial craft training for community residents.

“Louisiana and the Baton Rouge community have helped make this suite of projects a reality by offering strong support and the opportunity to collaborate to ensure this investment provides benefit for our citizens and local businesses,” ExxonMobil Baton Rouge Refinery Manager David Oldreive said. “Through this investment, we will reduce the facility’s volatile organic compound emissions up to 10 percent while bringing direct value to the community through increased tax revenue and job opportunities for local residents and small and diverse businesses. ExxonMobil has made significant progress to reduce emissions globally and plans further reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2025.”

To secure the investment, Louisiana Economic Development (LED) provided ExxonMobil with the comprehensive workforce solutions of LED FastStart, the state workforce training program in the U.S. for the past 11 years. The company also will utilize the state’s Industrial Tax Exemption Program.

“We are delighted with ExxonMobil’s decision to move forward with this important suite of projects,” Governor John Bel Edwards said. “For more than a century, the ExxonMobil Baton Rouge Refinery has fueled the economy of our state and nation. These latest capital upgrades will continue to position the integrated ExxonMobil refinery and chemical complex here in Baton Rouge as one of the world’s most innovative and competitive energy sites.”

According to Dr. Stephen Barnes, director of the Kathleen Babineaux Blanco Public Policy Center at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, direct, indirect and induced jobs resulting from project construction will total 2,030 in Baton Rouge by 2023. Direct property tax revenue is projected to reach $43 million over the life of the project.

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